If "March of the Penguins" was the most beloved documentary of 2005 and Martin Scorsese's Bob Dylan opus "No Direction Home" the most artful, the most illuminating was "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room" (ThinkFilm).

Writer-director Alex Gibney, adapting an extremely well-researched book by two Fortune magazine reporters, not only pulled the curtain back on the cynical skulduggery and arrogance that produced the nation's largest corporate bankruptcy, he also rendered it understandable to those of us who cannot comprehend a spreadsheet. And he turned what could have been a talking-head dissection into something very cinematic.

The film flows so naturally it's almost a surprise to discover that 20 minutes were cut before its release. Especially entertaining is a sequence in which the traders being enriched by the company's smoke-and-mirrors accounting practices celebrate by treating themselves to new cars, while more detail is provided about the rolling energy blackouts the Enron traders manipulated in California.

Lest anyone wonder if my enthusiasm for this film could be tainted in any way by the fact that I was one of the shareholder victims, full disclosure requires me to respond in the affirmative.

BIGGER BANG

A similar can-you-believe-it response may be provoked by "Lord of War" (Lion's Gate), one of the two very good films released last year starring Nicolas Cage that hardly anyone wanted to see. Though "Lord" is fiction, director-writer Andrew Niccol ("Gattaca") based it on the true story of an ambitious Ukrainian immigrant (Cage) who graduates from selling handguns to gangsters in Brooklyn's Little Odessa neighborhood to supplying more substantial artillery — some of it left over from the breakup of the Soviet Union — to various despots, dictators and rebels around the globe, acquiring great wealth, a trophy wife (Bridget Moynahan) and, very belatedly, a conscience in the process.

Despite the subject matter, "Lord of War" is as entertaining as it is frightening, since Niccol doesn't have to stretch the facts very far to find the absurd, dark comedy in the underground arms business.

ON 'JUNEBUG' WINGS

Though released only in major markets with little fanfare last fall, overlooked "Junebug," now available on DVD (Sony), was one of 2005's best. The small and original independent drama from director Phil Morrison stars Embeth Davidtz as a Chicago art gallery owner specializing in "outsider" art — think primitive but powerful paintings often produced by rural eccentrics.

She enters into a whirlwind romance and marriage to a Southern-born, Northern transplant (Alessandro Nivola).

Her campaign to recruit a North Carolina savant is coupled with her visit there to meet her new husband's family, who are extremely suspicious of her big-city ways; all except her young and very pregnant sister-in-law, played by Amy Adams with such winning, adorable innocence she breaks your heart.

The DVD contains no extras save the satisfaction you will receive from discovering an especially insightful movie — and of course, bragging rights if Adams gets a well-deserved Oscar nomination.

DOOGIE AND THE DUCK

"Doogie Howser, M.D. — Season 3" (Anchor Bay): Our kid doc finally attains voting age as he tries to balance saving lives with saving face with his teenage pals.

"The Chronological Donald, Volume 2 — 1942-1946" (Disney) features 32 animated shorts starring the irascible Mr. Duck, including the wartime classics "Der Fuhrer's Face" and "Donald Gets Drafted." And the new budget-priced "Funny Factory with Donald, Volume 2" (Disney) features three of the best shorts from "Treasures, Volume 1" and one from Volume 2 but will undoubtedly bedevil collectors.